How To Eat a Buttermilk Pancake(Like a Trad Foodie)

Then Pa sat down, as they urged him, and lifting the blanket cake on the untouched pile, he slipped from under it a section of the stack of hot, syrupy pancakes. Royal forked a brown slice of ham from the frying pan onto Pa’s plate and Almanzo filled his coffee cup.

“You boys certainly live in the lap of luxury,” Pa remarked. The pancakes were no ordinary buckwheat pancakes. Almanzo followed his mother’s pancake rule and the cakes were light as foam, soaked through with melted brown sugar.

-The Long Winter

Grains are seeds. Which are meant to germinate. So to make it through a few rounds of digestion from our grass fed cow and back into the ground to germinate they have built in protection called phytic acid. Phytic acid when not neutralized acts as an enzyme inhibitor, and will also bind unto minerals in our digestive tract causing mineral deficiencies.

It turns out that soaking grains in an acidic medium(yoghurt, buttermilk, whey, vinegar) activates the enzyme phytase which breaks down phytic acid.

Enter buttermilk pancakes. Not just a delicious invention, but traditionally prepared yields a nutritious breakfast. Mother Wilder knew what she was doing.

And of course the only way to eat pancakes is with lots of butter. And the beautiful part of being a “traditional foodie” is that we know that grass fed butter is full of nutrition for us. No fear! We then top our pancakes off with our natural sweetener of choice. Real maple syrup, a drizzle of honey, molasses or a homemade or organic jam.

I’ve tried this recipe with all my favorite flours, and it turns out so good every time. Including Almanzo’s version using buckwheat flour.

When my daughter wants pancakes, she asks the day before if I’ll set the batter out to soak. I think that’s the bees knees! She won’t have to go through such a steep learning curve of traditional food prep, she knows the basics already and she’s only 4! A gift that keeps on giving, for anyone wondering if it’s worth it.

This recipe is so simple, the only extra step you need to remember, is to make it up the day before. Cover and sit it out of your way. The oven if you’re not using it, or if you have a built in microwave that you can’t throw out, I hear they’re a great soaking/fermenting spot!

I use this same recipe for waffles and it cooks great in a waffle maker, just don’t thin the batter!

A nourishing traditions recipe, slightly modified. This is how we make it. As always, kid approved! And since I rarely ever have raw buttermilk on hand, I always use 2 cups of milk with a tablespoon of apple cider vinger to make my own “buttermilk”.

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Soaked Buttermilk Pancakes

Ingredients

2CupsGround spelt/wheat flour

2CupsButtermilk

2Eggs,

1/2TspSea salt

1TspBaking soda

Instructions

Soak flour in buttermilk, kefir, yoghurt or milk with 1tbs of apple cider vinger for 12-24 hours. Stir in other ingredientsand thin to desired consistency with milk.(Note, if making waffles I leave batter as is) Cook on a hot oiled griddle or cast iron skillet.

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Comments

Thank you so much for posting this recipe! My girls and I had these for breakfast this morning and they are out of this world yummy! Even my 4 yr old liked them and that’s monumental here considering how stinking picky she is! Soaked pancakes for the win! This will now be our go to pancake recipe!

Oh so awesome! Coming from a non pancake fan(me) isn’t it crazy how good they are? They’re a weekly occurrence at our house requested by my 4 yo picky eater! Too funny…moral of the story, if you have a picky eater, and especially if they’re 4, make soaked pancakes!